Before trains, birchbark canoes like this one at the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ont., were the bush planes of Canada’s 18th and 19th centuries, making possible the fur trade that opened a continent to Europeans.Mike Fuhrmann
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

Much vituperative nonsense afflicts First Nations, most of it stoked by ignorance and intellectual laziness.

One example appeared Wednesday as a letter to the Nanaimo Daily News. It triggered an instant Internet furor.

In less than an hour, a protest was organized. By midnight, Facebook and Twitter posts numbered in the thousands. By Thursday, a major advertiser was reportedly yanking ads. The newspaper stripped the letter from its website and followed with an apology of sorts.

Both letter and reaction were fascinating. First, every statement in the letter was demonstrably wrong – I’ll address that later. Second, the reaction demonstrates the power of social media, a wake-up for those who dismiss the Idle No More movement.

If to remain silent signals consent, it seems clear that many people don’t consent to bigoted claptrap. On the other hand, are we better off silencing bigotry, or publicly refuting it?

Silencing unpleasant voices drives them underground and removes opportunities to publicly confront falsehoods. And while the letter was ugly, it did assert opinions more prevalent than we like to admit.

So, let’s confront the offending letter.

Headlined “Educate First Nations to be modern citizens,” it cites 12,000 years of underachievement which failed to discover the wheel, devise written language, discover astronomy, science, mathematics, medicine, music beyond drums and rattles, metallurgy, sailing (they “only” had canoes), mechanical devices or just about anything else worthy of note.

This was presented as proof that First Nations can’t look after themselves or the billions taxpayers “give” them. The only solution is to educate their children in modern ways and assimilate them as taxpayers no different from any other Canadian.

There are many examples of First Nations’ competence. And educational assimilation resulted in the dismal horrors of residential schools. Leaving that irony aside, let’s address the list of assertions.

The wheel – It was here before Christopher Columbus. Why was it used for toys, not chariots? Good question. Why did the Chinese use gunpowder for fireworks instead of cannons?

Written language – Complex written languages characterized Central American civilizations; the Cherokee devised their own written syllabary.

Astronomy – Mayans practised astronomy at an advanced level. First Nations used the heavens to navigate the Great Plains, Arctic wastes and the Northwest Coast.

Science – From the chemistry of tanning hides to knowledge of infectious agents, indigenous technologies were informed by the same methods of trial, error and observation upon which modern science relies.

Mathematics – Central American civilizations used complex mathematics built on a number base of 20 rather than the number base of 10 used by our math. Base 20 may be different from what we teach in elementary school, but so is the binary math of computer technology.

Medicine – Cree women showed Jacques Cartier how a medicinal infusion prevented scurvy 200 years before the British “discovered” a cure. Plains peoples were renowned for bone-setting skills. Brain surgery was used from the Northwest Coast to Central America, where ancient surgical tools have been found. Antibiotics and anti-virals were used.

Music – An existing rich musical tradition was eradicated by Spanish missionaries. Yet within a decade, indigenous musicians were composing complex musical works in the western style.

Drum and rattle – The haunting flute melodies of First Nations are well-known.

Metallurgy – At least 6,000 years ago, indigenous metallurgists in Manitoba discovered the technique of annealing – superheating and slowly cooling metal to make it malleable. They made weapons, tools and jewelry. Copper was prized on the Northwest Coast and moved along trade routes that criss-crossed pre-contact North America. Spain got rich with precious metals looted from conquered indigenous peoples.

Sail versus canoe – Coastal canoes the size of racing yachts sometimes used sails. Before trains, the birchbark canoe was the bush plane of Canada’s 18th and 19th centuries, making possible the fur trade that opened a continent to Europeans.

Created virtually no mechanical devices – From specialized hunting gear to sophisticated irrigation systems, First Nations created scores of mechanical devices, including looms for weaving from 4,000 years ago.

Never used stone for building or art – Nanaimo’s own Petroglyph Park celebrates artistic stone images; Central American civilizations built stone cities, as did cliff-dwelling peoples of the American southwest. Northwest Coast civilizations used the local resource – cedar – for buildings explorers described as the equal of European buildings, but stone fortifications still stand in the Fraser Canyon.

Few inventions – An encyclopedia listing First Nations’ contributions to global technology runs to nearly 400 pages. For example, the tea clipper’s sleek hull design may have derived from canoes seen by traders travelling the Northwest Coast; Inuit clothing inspired the wet suit and the space suit.

So there it is.

The letter was ignorant. The newspaper rues publishing it. On the plus side, it provided both a teaching moment and an opportunity for the public to properly vent its disapproval of nasty stereotyping and insensitive media.

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